The deal shocked Bland’s family, as they were preparing for the only criminal trial related to her death.

The former Texas state trooper who arrested Sandra Bland during a 2015 traffic stop agreed never to work again in law enforcement in exchange for having a misdemeanor perjury charge against him dismissed, CNN reports.

Under the deal announced on Wednesday, Brian Encinia will turn over his police credentials and sign a sworn statement that permanently ends his law enforcement career. He was the only officer to face criminal charges in connection with Bland’s death while in police custody.

Charges dropped for Brian Encinia, who is the only cop who faced criminal charges related to Sandra Bland's death. https://t.co/bOK887ceBI

Phoebe Smith, a member of the prosecution team, said she sympathizes with Bland’s family but didn’t want to gamble on how a jury would decide the case, according to The Chronicle. She added that the team achieved the of permanently taking Encinia off the street.

Encinia, who was fired last year, stopped Bland in July 2015 for allegedly failing to use a turn signal. A dashcam video shows that a routine traffic stop escalated when Bland refused to put out her cigarette. Encinia dragged Bland, 28, out of her vehicle and threatened to Taser her. Several days after her arrest, Bland was found hanging in her jail cell, which authorities ruled a suicide.

A grand jury indicted Encinia for making false statements about the arrest. In a sworn document filed after the arrest, the former trooper claimed that he removed Bland from her car to conduct a safe traffic investigation.

Encinia’s lawyer, Chip Lewis, is pleased with the deal. He said it was unlikely that the ex-trooper would work in law enforcement because Encinia has been living with police protection after receiving numerous death threats over the incident.

Okay, if past trials are an indication of how this would have turned out, this (former) trooper would have been found not guilty at trial. So I understand the prosecution team’s pov. Still, the least they could/should have done was to contact Bland’s family to let them know personally of their decision to offer him this plea deal. If it’s true they were promised a trial, it must feel like disrespect on top of injustice for it to go down like that!

I agree with specialt757. If the past is any predictor of the future, he would not have been found guilty if it had gone to trial. At least the deal guarantees that there is one less jerk with a badge on the street.

Yeah, I know how some of us may feel about this, however, look at the last cases that were, in our minds, cut & dry clear cases of murder or at the very least manslaughter, and we got absolutely zero satisfaction, AQUITTALs. What’s even more heartbreaking, we all know this would have ended the exact same way. Knowing he will never work in law enforcement is just a little bit of a relief, perhaps adding, him not being allowed to obtain any type fire arm or deadly weapon would be better still. He may not have been the cause of her death physically, but he was definitely responsible for her being in jail in the first place, unjustly I might add.